Safeguard patients' rights with operating theatre black box

Safeguard patients' rights with operating theatre black boxes

A Toronto surgeon's work on an operating theatre equivalent of the black boxes used in aircraft has great significance for New Zealand patients being hamstrung by the ludicrously long delays in HDC investigations of complaints made to him where serious damage has been caused by incompetent surgery and/or equipment failure, according to Democrats for Social Credit Party health spokesman David Tranter.

Typically the HDC is taking upwards of three years to complete investigations which obviously causes great stress to patients and/or their families. With DHBs such as Canterbury/West Coast obviously following an agenda of cover-up rather than follow-up when complaints about surgery are made the HDC's delays not only make effective investigations more difficult but place enormous stress on patients and their families.

By the time the HDC gets around to reviewing a case brought before him the health professionals involved may have departed the country and those remaining will have had their recollections of the relevant events clouded by time. One would have to be very naive not to think there is a deliberate agenda to evade facing up to problems which arise, Mr. Tranter said.

Widespread problems in the use of surgical mesh clearly illustrate DHB reluctance to deal with such matters. One West Coast patient has spent three years trying to get answers to a dreadful outcome resulting from their surgery and when the HDC investigation was finally completed it dodged the major issues.

The family of another West Coast patient who died following clearly botched surgery waited three years for an unsatisfactory HDC investigation and then a further five years to get a coroner's report neither of which dealt properly with what had happened. Another West Coast patient had to leave the Coast and go to the private sector to try to repair the damage done to them in the public system.

In Dr. Grantcharov’s operating theatre, the whole room is wired. Cameras and microphones capture movement and conversation, and patient data such as heart rate and blood pressure, is logged automatically by a data recorder similar to black boxes used on airplanes to record flight data.

Commenting on the lack of feedback once patients finish their training Dr. Grantcharov says that once surgeons finish their medical training and begin practicing independently, “Nobody watches us, nobody coaches us and nobody provides feedback. This lack of feedback, as well as the pressure for surgeons to appear as though they never make errors, is not serving the medical community. Changing the culture starts with admitting or being transparent about our deficiencies.”

This is what I have been saying for years about the many patient disasters which have been communicated to me by patients, Mr Tranter said.

Clearly there will be opposition from those with vested interests such as a spokesman for Australian surgeons who, interviewed recently on the ABC, stated his opposition to the idea.

Although Dr.Grantcharov's scheme is a welcome step forward his own comment, "The data would also be kept from patients who file malpractice lawsuits against surgeons," raises the obvious question - why should those who undergo surgery be denied access to information about them, Mr. Tranter asked. Under the HDC code of rights patients are supposed to be "fully informed”.

The Democrats will be sending the article about the surgery black box scheme to every New Zealand M.P. It will be revealing to see who responds, and what they say.

ENDS

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